A Matter to Ponder

When did magicians become such cynics?

Comments

Monsignor Scott Rassbach said…
Not me. I'm still amazed by the wonder of it all.
1 February 2009 at 23:50
Jase said…
Who is cynical about what?

I'm cynical about this post. :)

Just kidding. But I am curious what prompted this post.
2 February 2009 at 14:14
Frater Yechidah said…
That is great to see, Scott :D

Jase, the initial instigator of this was the following thread:

http://www.evocationmagic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=735

However, it's a trend I've noted over many years, on various subjects, both online and in real life.

Cynicism is a noose to creativity and progress.

LVX,
Dean.
2 February 2009 at 18:18
Morgan Drake Eckstein said…
Magic is not what made me a cynic; becoming a manager of a business did.
3 February 2009 at 01:18
Jase said…
Thanks for the link, I haven't visited there in a while.

Rather than cynical, the word that comes to my mind is "silly."

Magic rigged the election? One person/group could override an entire country's collective hopes, dreams and fears? ... Isn't that akin to putting a few drops of food coloring into the sea, and hoping the whole body of water changes color?

As I think about the posts, I see where there is cynicism involve. However, this just seemed like another place for people who are dissatisfied/disillusioned with the status quo to vent.

I think they'd be cynical whether or not they practiced magic.

If there is a negative trend, I'd go more towards apathy than cynicism. Or maybe both; it depends on the issue.

But it's true that a lot of society thrives on negativity. For example, the media overexposure to the foibles of popular celebrities; and the trashier the celb, or the worse their situation, the more we see about it.

Great, Dean. Now I feel cynical! :)
3 February 2009 at 15:22
Suecae Sounds said…
I can be a cynic. But as a personal stance on how I actually want to view the world I try to "train myself" not to be. There is wonders amongst the misery. And I think that we, just being human beings, have the potential to act as a positive current in our societies.
6 February 2009 at 01:11
Post a Comment

Support the Blog

If you enjoyed this content and would like to see more of it, or would like to buy me a cup of tea as a thank you, make a donation through Kerubim Press by clicking the button below.

Thank you! Your support and patronage is much appreciated!

Popular posts from this blog

The Hidden Second Form of the Sigils of the Scales

Image
The Sigils of the Scales form an integral part of the symbol set employed by the Golden Dawn, combining with the Colours of the Scales to help pinpoint specific worlds, powers, and energies. Yet public knowledge of them has been limited, thanks to them being omitted from Regardie's tome, resulting in a major piece of the Order's corpus being left out of many people's work. So, what are the Sigils of the Scales? Here is an example of them below, from at the back of the Tarot papers of G.D. member M.W. Blackden (dated 7 June, 1899): (An aside: the Scales of Prince and Princess are sometimes referred to as Emperor and Empress respectively, while the list here names them in relation to the traditional Court Cards. The Prince Scale is also sometimes referred to as the Child Scale, or Scale of the Children of the Forces.) Like many parts of the G.D. corpus, we do not know their exact origin (indeed, Florence Farr seems to have looked for this elsewhere, at least in relation to th...
Read more

The Focus on Self in the Golden Dawn

A widely-shared view of the goal and method of the Golden Dawn's Outer Order, in particular, but also the system as a whole — which I have also shared at one point — is to improve the self, to go through an alchemical process of change (often seen today in psychological terms), which typically involves breaking down one's life, one's fears, one's desires, one's weaknesses, and one's strengths, into Elemental aspects, which are then explored, strengthened, addressed, or balanced in each of the Elemental Grades (at least from the modern perspective). While entirely admirable, and not without a measure of success — as experienced by many who have followed this approach — this conflicts with some of the official instructions given on how the Order (at least in its original incarnation, and subsequent form in the A.O.) approached things. Consider, for example, this extract from Flying Roll XX ("The Constitution of Man", a lecture delivered on 23 September 1...
Read more

Keeping the 5=6 Obligation Separate

Image
I have discovered an interesting point in a letter by Annie Horniman from 1902, which states: "S.R.M.D. [Mathers] made a great point to me about putting the 5=6 Obligation at the end of the book instead of in its place in the First Point. He gave me to understand that he had good reasons for this, something as to having received the Ceremony & Obligation from different sources or occasions." By coincidence (or perhaps not), I was inclined to do the same in The Complete Initiation Rituals of the Golden Dawn , where the 5=6 Obligation (as Ritual J) is given in the Appendices at the end of the book and not as part of the main 5=6 Ritual (some original copies of the Ritual were done this way, while others had the Obligation, also termed the Book of the Oath, given within the body of the Ritual). When it comes time for a new edition of The Complete Initiation Rituals of the Golden Dawn , I will add the above information in a footnote. However, as this will not be for many year...
Read more